Alberta Looks To Lure Pacific Northwest Unemployed

Job recruiters from Edmonton and other places in northern Alberta are seeking skilled workers from the Pacific Northwest.

Neil and Kathy CareyFlickr

Job recruiters from booming Alberta, Canada see opportunity amidst the high unemployment rates of Washington and Oregon. They're in Seattle this week inviting unemployed skilled workers in the Northwest to consider moving north.

The unemployment rate remains high in the American Northwest, but northern Alberta has a "significant labor shortage." That's chiefly due to oil and gas development. Edmonton Economic Development Corporation spokeswoman Renee Worrell says local companies have beaten the bushes all across Canada looking for more workers. Now they're recruiting Americans too, starting with the Pacific Northwest.

Worrell: "It was actually just a really nice crossover fit by way of location, proximity to Alberta, ease of access, things like that."

Worrell and a colleague are in the region for five days promoting several hundred high paying jobs to be filled by the fall.

Worrell: "You've got everything from cost estimators, planners, power engineers, and construction managers. And then you've also got welders and other occupations as well."

Worrell says foreign applicants will get help applying for temporary work permits. She says she wouldn't be surprised if the move north becomes permanent for some.